Logistics, South African caution delay Congo combat force

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo: Deployment of a unique new U.N. combat force, billed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a peace enforcer for eastern Congo, is being delayed by logistical difficulties and reticence from troop contributor South Africa. An uneasy six-month peace in eastern Congo collapsed last week when clashes erupted between government troops and M23 rebels near the region's largest city Goma, days before a visit by Ban and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.

The two men were on a mission to promote the latest international attempt to pacify the conflict-torn region, where armed groups, the army and neighboring countries have for nearly two decades battled for control of land and resources.

A $1 billion World Bank aid package aimed at bringing much needed development is to act as carrot for the plan.

But the stick a 3,000-strong U.N. Intervention Brigade of Tanzanian, South African and Malawian troops with an unprecedented mandate for offensive operations against some 30 armed groups has only just begun to arrive.

Ban said this week it may take up to another two months before the long-awaited force is operational.

"The troops are coming but it's more of a trickle than anything else," a senior U.N. official in Goma told Reuters.

To date, only around 500 South African and Tanzanian troops have arrived in Goma, U.N. sources say, with delays partly due to logistical and planning problems, including where to base South Africa's incoming troops.

Analysts say South Africa has also been irked by a perceived slight in the choice of both the brigade's command, which has gone to a Tanzanian, and the overall U.N. military leadership in Congo, which went to a Brazilian general whose last job was tackling criminal gangs in Haiti.

"It seems there was a lot of horse trading going on at the United Nations, rather than choosing the appropriate person," South African defense analyst Helmoed Romer Heitman said.

M23 TO DEFEND ITSELF

This led to some discussion over whether South Africa keen to flex its regional muscles might pull out in protest, according to Jason Stearns, director of regional think tank the Great Lakes Institute.

Rebels may also be using the delay to seize the initiative before the brigade arrives, Stearns said.

"M23 wants to be able to either prevent the Intervention Brigade from arriving altogether or to be in a very strong military position once it arrives," he said.

M23's military commander Sultani Makenga told Reuters on Monday his troops would not target the U.N. force but would defend themselves if needed.

He said reviving stalled peace talks in neighboring Uganda was the only way to break the military deadlock in eastern Congo.

No one from the South African military was immediately available for comment, though military sources there say the force is undergoing training.

Pretoria is determined, following the death in March of 13 of its soldiers at rebel hands during a peacekeeping mission in neighboring Central African Republic, to avoid a similar debacle in Congo, Heitman said.

It was South Africa's worst military losses since the end of apartheid in 1994.

"The intention is to ensure they are well trained. They are taking on board the lessons of Bangui," he said.

Tension is rising as Congo's notoriously ill disciplined army itches to avenge humiliations at the hands of M23, including a rout in November which saw the insurgents briefly seize Goma.

On the northern outskirts of the lakeside town, Indian peacekeepers have deployed tanks and set up a road-block - a thin, blue-helmeted line separating the two sides, with rebel positions clearly visible in the surrounding hills.

At least three civilians were killed last week after rebel shells fell in aid camps and residential areas, according to the United Nations.

The army's increasingly aggressive attitude risks worsening the situation and jeopardizing more civilian lives, Goma's mayor Naasson Kubuya Ndoole said.

"I met a soldier who told me that if M23 continues, the army is prepared to chase them all the way to Rwanda," he said.

"This determination is dangerous. It's better this neutral force arrives to play the role of arbiter or to tackle the M23 calmly." (Reuters) (GNN)

African neighbors to help fund Zimbabwe vote: Mugabe

HARARE: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said regional leaders will hold a summit to discuss how to fund an election later this year in which he is seeking to extend his three-decade rule, state media reported on Tuesday. Impoverished Zimbabwe needs $132 million for the election but conditions attached to the cash have divided the already fractious unity government, whose main players will be rivals for power in the vote.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF has been pushing for funding with as few strings as possible and withdrew a request to have the United Nations fund the poll, saying the global body was trying to interfere in domestic issues.

The MDC of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is keen to attach the money to the deployment of election observers. It fears ZANU-PF, whose members are under international sanctions for suspected rigging of previous votes, will use the security forces to intimidate voters.

Any repeat of violence that accompanied the last vote in 2008 could end Zimbabwe's fragile economic recovery and unleash another refugee crisis similar to the one five years ago when hundreds of thousands fled to neighboring South Africa.

Zimbabwe's government-owned Herald newspaper said South African President Jacob Zuma proposed to Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders at a meeting on the sidelines of the just-ended African Union summit that they should help fund Zimbabwe's elections.

"We said we now want to go for elections and we need help and they (SADC leaders) said they will hold a special summit to examine how they will help with election funding," Mugabe was quoted as telling ZANU-PF members after the AU summit.

Officials from South Africa and the SADC regional bloc of 15 states were not immediately available for comment.

But SADC observers could be a compromise amenable to Mugabe, who regularly rails against the West for imposing sanctions he blames for ruining an economy that analysts say was wrecked by policy blunders by Mugabe and his ZANU-PF.

Mugabe, 89, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980 will face long-time rival Tsvangirai in the vote.

They displayed rare unity this year in pushing through a new constitution at a referendum, a critical step for the election but which depleted state coffers for the next vote.

The new constitution clips the powers of the president and imposes a two-term limit. However, it does not apply retroactively so Mugabe technically could rule until he is 99.

Zimbabwe's parliament will be dissolved on June 29 and the country has up to four months to hold the election.

The Supreme Court last Friday heard a case in which a Harare man wants to force Mugabe to announce an election date before June 29. A ruling on the case was expected to come soon. (Reuters) (GNN)

Detroit's foundations spread money through broken city

DETROIT: When Kevin Ward fulfilled his dream by opening a rib joint in one of Detroit's poorest and most blighted areas, he could not afford extra meat. If the ribs ran out, he closed for the day. "We were doing real well considering, but inventory was a problem," said Ward, 40, who perfected his ribs while at college in Alabama and opened Slabbee's five months ago in Brightmoor.
But with advice from SWOT City, a pilot program run by foundation-backed small-business incubator TechTown Detroit, Ward has received microfinancing to solve his inventory problem. Now he plans to buy a delivery van and hire a second employee.

Ward's rib joint is just one example of new ways in which Detroit's philanthropic foundations are trying to create jobs and boost schools in a city facing potential bankruptcy.

In doing so, they are conducting a sort of civic triage, choosing areas, schools and businesses with a good chance of survival.

The foundations' efforts address the breakdown of civic life that Detroit's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, pointed out earlier this month in his first report on Detroit's financial health.

Detroit's foundations hark back to an era when the city was an economic beacon and the auto industry's birthplace. The Kresge Foundation, for example, was started in 1924 with money from the founder of what eventually became retail giant Kmart.

Some other initiatives in Detroit are paying off. The city's downtown is experiencing a small boom thanks largely to mortgage lender Quicken Loans, whose co-founder and Detroit native Dan Gilbert has moved in 7,000 employees and invested $1 billion in an attempt to attract other businesses.

But most of Detroit's 80 percent black population of around 700,000 live outside downtown, many in blighted areas.

"Downtown is critical, but there are a whole host of problems out in the neighborhoods that need to be dealt with," said Leslie Smith, CEO of TechTown Detroit, whose SWOT City pilot has led to one new small business with six more planned.

These efforts to design strategy and measure results mirror a broader shift in the charitable world, said Michael Moody of the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University.

In the past, foundations were satisfied giving away food and clothing. "The history of philanthropy, especially in the Depression, has shown that doesn't work," Moody said.

The Detroit-based Skillman Foundation has focused on schools in six neighborhoods and seen graduation rates rise 14 percent from 2007 to 2012 in four of them, compared to a 1 percent rise citywide.

The New Economy Initiative, which has committed $100 million to promote entrepreneurs in Detroit, says it has measured the results so far: It has helped 423 small firms and contributed to the creation of more than 7,000 jobs.

Local foundations have been criticized in the past for throwing their weight around, but Moody said they have become more collaborative and responsive as a result.

SAFETY ISSUES UNDERMINE PROGRESS

Detroit native Adriana Alvarez left her post-college job in Hawaii in 2010 to return to work for non-profit Congress of Communities, which focuses on Southwest Detroit, a neighborhood that has attracted many Hispanic immigrants in recent decades.

"If I don't give back, then others won't get a chance to learn what I have," said Alvarez, 24.

Her group has become a conduit for other local non-profits, with projects to help children avoid joining gangs through youth groups and sports, and patrolling streets to prevent crime.

Congress of Communities is one of six neighborhood groups the Skillman Foundation has invested in. Dedicated to helping Detroit's children and founded by the widow of an early executive at 3M Co who settled in the Detroit area, Skillman selected these areas for their high concentrations of children.

Skillman used to give millions of dollars annually to Detroit's ailing public school system, but found the results unsatisfactory. It chose instead to back individual schools. In order to help the communities around these schools, Skillman has funded community groups of local activists.

"The question was how do we reinvent the social contract in Detroit?" said Chris Uhl, a former banker and now vice president of social innovation. Since 2007, Skillman has issued $124 million to its six target areas.

Tonya Allen, due to become Skillman's next president, estimates the grants the foundation has made have leveraged an additional $450 million in grants from other groups since 2007.

Skillman's approach is mirrored by General Motors Co, which like Detroit's other automakers has joined efforts to help the city.

GM has committed $27.1 million over five years to a United Way program to raise graduation rates at seven city schools to 80 percent from 50 percent.

The Kresge Foundation has focused on boosting the economy along Woodward Avenue, a major city thoroughfare.

It has kicked in $35 million toward a $137 million, 3.5-mile (5.6-km) light rail line along Woodward, along with private companies like Quicken Loans and truck rental firm Penske.

These private contributions as well as the U.S. government's $25 million stake will count toward further extensions of the line, said Kresge's senior director for community development Laura Trudeau.

"Our influence is limited but we try to leverage it to have a greater impact," said Trudeau.

Kresge also has committed $150 million over the next five years toward Detroit Future City, a citywide planning blueprint.

Foundations here say when they fund projects, others follow suit. New Economy Initiative Executive Director David Egner said the group has committed $7 million since 2010 to entrepreneurial seed fund Invest Detroit and attracting "tens of millions" more.

NEI, a joint effort by 10 foundations, eight of them based in southeast Michigan, now claims it has $110 million in total, a combination of investable funds and tax credits for business expansion.

It is planning a second, $60 million round of fundraising to continue supporting Detroit-area entrepreneurs.

Foundation leaders say the biggest hurdle to success today is endemic violence and crime in some areas. Detroit's murder rate in 2012 was 10 times the U.S. average.

Seemingly mundane facts of street life - broken street lights and inoperable fire hydrants - compound the city's problems.

"If the lights don't work and the streets aren't safe, people won't come here," said NEI's Egner.

Bill Nowling, spokesman for Kevyn Orr, acknowledges public safety is a "paramount concern."

"The region's philanthropic community is fully committed to Detroit's turnaround, but we cannot let its effort be for naught," Nowling said.

Skillman's Uhl says lack of safety undermines progress. One telling example: True Whitsey was a graduate of Frederick Douglas Academy, a Skillman-funded school, and went on to study at Ferris State University.

But when he returned home for Christmas break last year, he was shot and killed while being robbed at gunpoint in the street.

"Our work is meaningless if we can't keep these kids safe," Uhl said. "If they don't fix that it doesn't mean a damn thing." (Reuters) (GNN)

EU duties on Chinese solar panels losing member state support

BRUSSELS: A majority of EU governments oppose a plan to impose hefty duties on solar panel imports from China, a survey of member states showed on Monday, undermining efforts by Brussels to pressure Beijing over its trade practices. The European Commission, the EU's executive, accuses Chinese firms of selling solar panels at below cost in Europe - a practice known as "dumping" - and plans to impose duties, making it far harder for China to gain market share.

The duties, averaging 47 percent, will come into force from June 6 for a trial period and could be withdrawn if both sides can reach a negotiated settlement. Chinese officials were holding talks with EU officials in Brussels on Monday.

The case is the largest trade case the Commission has undertaken, with around 21 billion euros of China-made solar panels sold in the EU. The duties are being proposed by the EU's trade commissioner, Belgian lawyer Karel De Gucht.

But fearful of losing business in China, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands are among at least 14 member states who oppose the sanctions, diplomats told Reuters.

The EU's 27 countries had until Friday to submit a formal, written response to De Gucht's plans. While the trade commissioner would still have the right to impose the duties, doing so in the face of member states' opposition would be hard.

Provisional duties will more than likely still go ahead on June 6, once they are published in the European Union's official journal, officials say, but the pressure to roll them back before they become permanent in December will be intense.

The split underlines the depth of division in the EU over how to deal with China, a critical market for many EU exporters and the region's second biggest trading partner over all.

Reuters spoke to 21 of the EU's 27 countries and confirmed that 15 - a majority - opposed the duties while six supported them. The other six either declined to say or were unreachable.

France and Italy are leading a group of countries who say De Gucht is right to go ahead with sanctions, arguing that China's rapid rise in solar panel output to more than the world's entire demand could not have happened without illegal state support.

Chinese companies have captured more than 80 percent of the European market from almost zero a few years ago.

De Gucht met China's deputy commerce minister for informal talks in Brussels on Monday, a day after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meeting in Berlin, called for an end to the dispute, as well as another conflict over Chinese telecoms companies accused of dumping in Europe.

Germany initially supported De Gucht's plans for duties, and it was a German company, Solar World, which first raised the complaint against Chinese dumping.

But rather than punitive measures, Merkel now appears to favor a negotiated solution, wary of the potential impact on German exporters if China were to take retaliatory steps.

"There is no need for more sanction measures," German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler told a news conference on Monday after talks with Li.

TRADE CHIEF'S STRATEGY

Although De Gucht says he had no intention of damaging European business interests in China, he wants to show Beijing that the Commission is serious about preventing dumping and that China must play by international trade rules.

France holds the same view.

"We want to see a balanced relationship between China and the European Union," said French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg.

"Countries that use protectionism, and China is one of them, should accept reciprocal rules," he told reporters.

EU officials told Reuters earlier this year they were frustrated with the Chinese leadership's lack of engagement.

By levying provisional duties, the Commission feels it has leverage because under EU law, the sanctions could be cemented for up to five years from December if no solution is found.

According to a copy of the Commission's solar investigation obtained by Reuters, the Commission found clear evidence of dumping by Chinese producers.

"The Commission was presented with prima facie evidence that dumping occurred. They can't just ignore that," said Stuart Newman, a legal advisor to the Foreign Trade Association, a lobby group based in Brussels. (Reuters) (GNN)

Ethiopian leader accuses international court of racial bias

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, the current chairman of the African Union, on Monday accused the International Criminal Court of racial bias and targeting Africans for prosecution, The Hague based court was set up to bring the perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity to justice a mission that Hailemariam said it has lost sight of.

"The intention was to avoid any kind of impunity but now the process has degenerated into some kind of race hunting," Hailemariam told reporters at the end of African Union summit in Addis Ababa. "So we object to that."

During the summit, African leaders backed a Kenyan proposal for the tribunal to refer its cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy for alleged crimes against humanity back to Kenya.

Kenyatta and William Ruto are accused of masterminding ethnic violence that killed more than 1,200 people after a disputed presidential election five years ago. Both deny the charges.

A new constitution ratified after the turmoil and a reformed judiciary meant Kenya could deal with the matter itself, African Union officials said.

A senior AU official said the ICC and the U.N. Security Council needed to be more responsive to decisions taken by Africa.

"It is not a court of the north to try leaders from the south," Ramtane Lamamra, the AU's peace and security head, told a news conference.

It was unreasonable for the United Nations to refer Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to the ICC when three of the Security Council's five permanent members the United States, Russia and China had either not signed up to or not ratified the Rome Statute which established the ICC, he said.

"How could you refer the cases of others while you don't feel compelled to abide by the same rule," Lamamra said. (Reuters) (GNN)

Two dead, five hurt in Texas shooting spree

TEXAS: A gunman randomly firing from his pickup truck killed one person and wounded five, including the sheriff of Concho County, Texas, on Sunday before the suspect was killed in a shootout with law enforcement, officials said. Authorities recovered an assault rifle, a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from the suspect, who was said to be 23 years old and from North Carolina.

The name was withheld pending notification of relatives, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement.

The statement identified the dead victim as Alicia Torres, 41, who was shot dead in her car, the statement said.

The Texas Rangers, local law enforcement and Texas Parks and Wildlife were investigating multiple scenes in Concho County, about 250 miles southwest of Dallas, following the early morning shooting spree.

The first incident took place about 4:30 a.m. when the suspect opened fire on vehicle near Eden, wounding a woman, who was later hospitalized in San Angelo, the statement said.

The suspect wounded two more people a short time later as they sat in their vehicle outside a convenience store in Brady, and then returned to Eden, where he fired on another vehicle and wounded another person. Those three were treated and released.

About 6 a.m., Torres was found shot to death in her car in Eola.

Some 15 minutes later, Concho County Sheriff Richard Doane encountered the suspect on a highway north of Eden. The sheriff was wounded and taken to a San Angelo hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the statement said.

The gunman was killed in a shootout with a Highway Patrol trooper and game warden who arrived to assist the sheriff, the statement said. (GNN)

British officials knew suspect in soldier’s death had ties to Al Qaeda

LONDON: Britain’s security agencies appeared headed for a period of deeply uncomfortable scrutiny after the government said Sunday that it had been aware for more than two years that one of the two men suspected of hacking an off-duty British soldier to death on a London street had ties to Al Qaeda. A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that the ministry had provided “consular assistance” in Kenya in 2010 to the man, Michael Adebolajo, 28, a British citizen of Nigerian descent. He had been arrested by the Kenyan police on suspicion of planning to join Al Shabab, an extremist group in Somalia that Britain has classified as a terrorist organization.

Mr. Adebolajo and the other suspect in the London attack Michael Adebowale, 22, also of Nigerian origin have been under armed police guard in separate London hospitals since the attack last Wednesday.

The soldier Lee Rigby, 25 was run down by a car on the sidewalk outside an army barracks, then attacked with meat cleavers. Police officers arriving on the scene shot and wounded the two suspects.

The grisly brutality of the attack shocked Britain as few events have since the bombings on the London transit system on July 7, 2005, which killed 52 passengers and the four bombers.

Sunday newspaper headlines about the case focused on what the government knew about Mr. Adebolajo and Mr. Adebowale and why no action was taken that might have prevented Mr. Rigby’s death.

In a statement on Sunday, the Foreign Office spokesman sought to tamp down the controversy, saying that the office’s role in the events in Kenya in November 2010 was limited to consular assistance to Mr. Adebolajo, “as normal for British nationals.”

It did not address the Kenyan government’s statements that Mr. Adebolajo, using a false name, had been arrested near the Somali border with five Kenyans nationals while carrying Shabab literature.

The statement also did not address a claim made on BBC television on Friday night that Mr. Adebolajo spoke of rebuffing an attempt by MI5, the British domestic security agency, to recruit him.

The claim was made by Ibrahim Hassan, a man who says he has links to Islamic extremist groups. Mr. Hassan said Mr. Adebolajo had told him that the recruitment attempt was made after he was deported from Kenya.

British security officials quoted in the Sunday newspapers said that efforts to recruit Islamic extremists in such circumstances were common.

Mr. Hassan himself was arrested in the BBC studio immediately after the interview by Scotland Yard counterterrorism detectives, who said that the arrest was not connected to the killing of Mr. Rigby.

Mr. Hassan’s claims and his arrest added to a growing sense that inquiries into Mr. Rigby’s death are likely to delve into the murky world of the security agencies and their dealings with Islamic extremists.

A Parliamentary panel, the Intelligence and Security Committee, has said it expects to receive a preliminary report from the government on the attack this week.

Among the issues that the panel’s leading members have said they want to explore is whether MI5’s desire to penetrate groups with suspected terrorist ties had led to decisions not to prosecute people like Mr. Adebolajo under laws that bar Britons from engaging with terrorist organizations overseas.

Security officials have said that MI5 viewed Mr. Adebolajo as posing a “low risk” of potential terrorism and did think he needed close monitoring.

Security officials have also confirmed that Mr. Adebolajo, and to a more limited extent Mr. Adebowale, had been known to British security officials for several years because they took part in protests in Britain that were organized by extremist groups, some of which involved violent clashes with the police.

Newspapers in Britain have carried accounts saying that Mr. Adebolajo had been heard in mosques and community centers in south London calling for jihadist attacks in Britain.

Muslim community groups have condemned the killing of Mr. Rigby in unequivocal terms, and say that many British Muslims are deeply apprehensive over a number of incidents of hostile graffiti and invective since his death, despite appeals for calm from Prime Minister David Cameron, the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, and other prominent figures.

Tensions may rise further this week, when post-mortem details on Mr. Rigby are expected to be made public.

The report may shed light on several aspects of the brutal attack that have seized public attention, including whether he was still alive after the car hit him, and whether he was beheaded, as some witnesses say. The police have so far declined to address those questions. (GNN)

Jolie aunt dies of breast cancer days after op-ed

ESCONDIDO: Angelina Jolie's aunt died Sunday of breast cancer less than two weeks after Jolie had a double mastectomy to avoid the disease. Debbie Martin died at age 61 at a hospital in Escondido, California, near San Diego, her husband, Ron Martin, told The Associated Press.

Debbie Martin was the younger sister of Jolie's mother, Marcheline Bertrand, whose own death from ovarian cancer in 2007 inspired the surgery that Jolie described in a May 14 op-ed in the New York Times.

According to her husband, Debbie Martin had the same defective BRCA1 gene that Jolie does, but didn't know it until after her 2004 cancer diagnosis.

Had we known, we certainly would have done exactly what Angelina did, Ron Martin said in a phone interview.

Debbie Martin's death was first reported by E! News. Ron Martin said after getting breast cancer, Debbie Martin had her ovaries removed preventively because she was also at very high genetic risk for ovarian cancer, which has killed several women in her family.

The 37-year-old Jolie said in her op-ed that her doctors estimated that she had a 50 percent risk of getting ovarian cancer but an 87 percent risk of breast cancer.

She had her breasts removed first, reducing her likelihood to a mere 5 percent.

She described the three-step surgical process in detail in the op-ed ``because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience.''

The story, a surprise to most save those closest to Jolie, spurred a broad discussion of genetic testing and pre-emptive surgery.

A message left with representatives seeking comment from Jolie was not immediately returned. (GNN)

Oil down on China worries

SINGAPORE: Oil prices were lower in Asian trade Monday, dragged down by prospects of weaker crude demand from China and a buildup in US stockpiles, analysts said. New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude for delivery in July, dropped 64 cents to $93.51 a barrel in the morning and Brent North Sea crude for July delivery shed 41 cents to $102.23.

"The crude market has reacted negatively to comments from the Chinese government that it will tolerate a slower rate of economic growth," Victor Shum, managing director at IHS Purvin and Gertz in Singapore, told.

President Xi Jinping on Friday said China, the world's second largest economy and top energy consumer, will not sacrifice the environment for temporary economic growth.

"The comments by Xi further deepened concerns about the Chinese economy after the poor manufacturing data last week," Shum added.

Meanwhile, a less-than-expected drop in US crude stockpiles was also weighing on prices. (AFP) (GNN)

Moon may harbour alien minerals: study

PARIS: Minerals found in craters on the Moon may be remnants of asteroids that slammed into it and not, as long believed, the satellite's innards exposed by such impacts, a study said Sunday. The findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, cast doubt on the little we knew of what the Moon is actually composed of.

It had long been thought that meteoroids vaporise on impact with large celestial bodies.

Unusual minerals like spinel and olivine found in many lunar craters, but rarely on the Moon's surface, were therefore attributed to the excavation of sub-surface lunar layers by asteroid hits.

Olivine and spinel are common components of asteroids and meteorites, and have been found on the floors and around the central peaks of lunar craters like Copernicus, Theophilus and Tycho that are around 100 kilometres (63 miles) in diameter.

A team from China and the United States simulated the formation of Moon craters and found that at impact velocities under 12 kilometres per second a projectile may survive the impact, though fragmented and deformed.

"We conclude that some unusual minerals observed in the central peaks of many lunar impact craters could be exogenic (external) in origin and may not be indigenous to the Moon," they wrote.

Co-author Jay Melosh from Purdue University in Indiana, said the finding answers the conundrum exposed by earlier studies which said craters the size of Copernicus were not big enough to have dredged up the contents of the Moon's deep, interior mantle.

"It also warns planetary scientists not to use the composition of the central peaks of craters as a guide to the interior of the Moon, whose dominant mineral might not be olivine," he told AFP.

On Earth, spinel and olivine create rare gemstones like peridot.

In an article commenting on the study, Erik Asphaug of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, said the theory meant that material excavated from Earth by large impacts during the planet's early days may still be found on the Moon.

The scattered material was known to have hit the Moon at velocities as slow as 2 km/s and should have survived, if the study's assumptions are correct.

This suggested yet another explanation for the existence of spinels on the Moon, said Asphaug: They came from Earth.

"Even more provocative is the suggestion that we might someday find Earth's protobiological materials, no longer available on our geologically active and repeatedly recycled planet, in dry storage up in the lunar 'attic'.

"Certainly, the potential of finding early Earth material is emerging as one of the primary motivations for a return to the Moon by human astronauts in our ongoing search for the origin of life."

Unlike the Earth's crust, which is repeatedly recycled through the process of plate tectonics, the Moon's hard crust dates back billions of years, offering clues to the formation of the solar system, including Earth. (AFP) (GNN)

European stocks claw back ground as markets steady

LONDON: European stocks, bonds and the dollar traded more calmly on Monday after last week's turbulence, though another 3 percent dive in Japan's Nikkei kept investors on edge. While evidence mounts that a mid-year slowdown is taking place in the world economy, UK and U.S. holidays kept European equity and bond markets quieter than usual.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares gained 0.3 percent as last week's falls tempted buyers, while demand for safe-haven 10-year German government bond futures eased and Italian and Spanish bonds strengthened.

The dollar was steadier, though it dipped to below 101 against the yen as the latest lurch in Japanese equities encouraged investors who have been unwinding their dollar hedges and heading for bonds.

The 3.2 percent drop on Tokyo's Nikkei brought its losses since Thursday to more than 10 percent, though it is still up 35 percent this year.

"Markets are currently experiencing difficulty fully and precisely understanding both the pace of global growth and the implications of central banks' activism," Credit Agricole said in a note.

"Expectations cannot remain stable for long and so investors should be prepared for periods of higher volatility in particular asset classes," they added.

In commodity markets, Brent crude slipped towards $102 per barrel, extending last week's 2 percent drop, as a weak economic outlook in a well-supplied market pressured prices.

The broader market nerves also helped gold firm to 1392.75 an ounce as it built on last week's best run in a month and growth-attuned copper fell 0.2 percent.

GROWTH FOCUS

The latest shakeout of equity, bond and currency markets has been triggered by concerns the U.S. Federal Reserve could wind in its support sooner that had been expected, weak China data and doubts over how low Japan will allow the yen to go.

The European Central Bank, however, may still have some scope to try to counter a recession triggered largely by efforts to contain sovereign debt burdens in the euro zone.

On Wednesday, the European Commission will release its review of its countries' debt-cutting policies, which will confirm that the likes of France, Spain and Slovenia are to be given more time to trim their budget deficits to target.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will publish a review of major economies on the same day.

Three Italian government bond auctions this week will test investors' appetite after the talk of Fed stimulus withdrawal.

Italian and Spanish bonds were caught in the sell-off in risk assets last week but yields on both eased back on Monday as bond markets continued to focus on whether the ECB will cut interest rates again next month.

Policymaker Joerg Asmussen said it would remain accommodative "as long as needed" though he sounded cautious about charging banks to put money on deposit at the ECB, something that could help hold down national borrowing costs.

"One should be very cautious regarding the discussion if the ECB could introduce negative deposit rates... This can have advantages, but it can also have disadvantages," Asmussen said in a speech in Berlin. (Reuters) (GNN)

BOJ board rift over ambitious price goal will test Governor Kuroda

TOKYO: A rift within the Bank of Japan's board over how to steer its radical monetary stimulus to end nearly two decades of damaging deflation underlined the early challenges Governor Haruhiko Kuroda faces in his efforts to foster sustained growth. The differences of opinion were highlighted in the minutes of the April 26 meeting, which showed some policymakers opposed targeting 2 percent inflation in two years and called for more flexibility in guiding monetary policy.

The board also engaged in considerable debate over the recent bond market volatility that followed the BOJ's monetary easing on April 4, a sign the members were uneasy about the rise in borrowing costs that could undermine the central bank's ultra-loose policy.

"We're still seeing potential instability in the bond market," one member was quoted as saying in the minutes released on Monday.

The rift and the market volatility, which also hit Tokyo shares, pose a challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's sweeping monetary and fiscal expansionary policies aimed at reviving Japan's long-dormant economy.

They also underscore concerns, even within the BOJ, over the central bank's stimulus plan that relies heavily on lifting sentiment and creating expectations of future inflation and growth.

"Given how extreme the April easing step was, it's natural for disagreements to exist within the BOJ," said Yasuhide Yajima, chief economist at NLI Research Institute in Tokyo.

"Failure to meet the price target will test the BOJ's credibility. But the bank's policy itself is contradictory. When expectations of inflation heighten, bond yields will rise. The BOJ can't really do anything to stop that."

The BOJ unleashed the world's most intense burst of stimulus last month, promising to inject $1.4 trillion into the economy in less than two years to meet its pledge of achieving 2 percent inflation in roughly two years.

At a subsequent meeting on April 26, the BOJ extended the period for its economic forecasts to three years and said Japan will likely approach 2 percent inflation in the latter half of the three-year period to March 2016.

Among the nine member board, former economists Takahide Kiuchi and Takehiro Sato dissented against the new forecasts on the view that they were too ambitious in a country that has been mired in deflation for 15 years.

"A few members said it was tough to achieve 2 percent inflation in the latter half of the forecast period as there is uncertainty over how changes in future inflation expectations will actually push up prices," according to the minutes, which likely referred to Kiuchi and Sato.

One of the two said the credibility of the BOJ's policy would be hurt if the central bank made forecasts bound with uncertainty and failed to achieve them, the minutes showed.

Both made unsuccessful proposals to water down the BOJ's commitment to meet 2 percent inflation in two years. Kiuchi said the central bank should limit the period for committing to its ultra easy policy for two years, and review it thereafter to see whether it should be sustained.

SENTIMENT SOURING?

At the April 26 meeting, the BOJ voted unanimously to stick with the massive easing announced three weeks earlier, in which it pledged to double its Japanese government bond (JGB) holdings in two years as it expands the supply of money at an annual pace of 60 trillion ($593 billion) to 70 trillion yen.

While the aggressive stimulus has sent stocks soaring, the massive scale of the BOJ's buying jolted the bond market and nudged the 10 year yield to its highest level in a year last week, casting a cloud over the effectiveness of its easing.

A decline in bond prices would hit the balance sheet of many Japanese banks that have heavily loaded up on bonds, and increase the cost of financing Japan's huge debt pile, already the biggest in the developed world at more than double the size of its economy.

Moreover, the biggest danger for Japan is the potential loss of investor confidence, as policymakers are counting on changing perceptions to create a virtuous circle of consumption, bigger company profits, investment, higher wages and growth.

Kuroda has played down the risks, saying on Sunday that banks have sufficient buffers against losses they may incur from rises in bond yields.

The bond market turbulence, however, was among the key topics at the April 26 meeting, suggesting that it was making some policymakers jittery.

A few members said the turbulence was due to a tug-of-war between downward pressure on yields from the BOJ's huge bond buying and upward pressure from expectations the BOJ will meet its price goal at an early date, the minutes showed.

Some board members called for the need to continue examining steps to prevent a decline in liquidity in the JGB market that was blamed for the bond market volatility, the minutes showed, although they did not discuss any details or likely new ideas.

The BOJ hopes to soothe market jitters by pumping money via market operations and enhancing communication with investors. It will hold a meeting with JGB market participants for this purpose on Wednesday.

($1 = 101.1850 Japanese yen) (Reuters) (GNN)

Japan's Mayor Hashimoto denies he meant to excuse wartime brothels

TOKYO: Outspoken Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, seeking to quell an international furor, denied on Monday that he had ever meant to excuse Japan's wartime military brothels and said Japan should apologize to the Asian and other women forced to work there. Still, in comments likely to keep the controversy alive, Hashimoto said historical research was needed to determine whether Japan "as a state" was directly involved in human trafficking of the "comfort women", as those who worked in the brothels are euphemistically known in Japan.

He also urged other countries to face up to the possibility of similar offences regarding "sex and the battlefield".

Hashimoto, the populist co-leader of a small right-wing party, sparked a storm of criticism at home and abroad when he said earlier this month that the military brothels had been "necessary" at the time and that Japan had been unfairly singled out for practices common among other militaries during wartime.

Those remarks have further eroded dwindling voter support for his once rising Japan Restoration Party, making it a less attractive potential ally for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as he eyes sensitive revisions to the country's pacifist post-war constitution.

Hashimoto did not withdraw his remarks but said they had been reported only in part, and had been misunderstood.

"I am totally in agreement that the use of 'comfort women' by Japanese soldiers before and during the World War Two was an inexcusable act that violated the dignity and human rights of the women in which large numbers of Korean and Japanese were included," Hashimoto said at the start of a nearly three hour news conference before foreign and domestic media.

"I also strongly believe that Japan must reflect upon its past offenses with humility and express a heartfelt apology and regret to those women who suffered from the wartime atrocities as comfort women," he said in an English version of the statement. "I have never condoned the use of comfort women."

KONO STATEMENT

Hashimoto's popularity has waned and the "comfort women" controversy has added to his woes. Only 3 percent of voters plan to cast their ballots for his party in a July upper house election, down six percentage points from an April questionnaire, a survey by the Nikkei business daily showed.

The issue of the "comfort women" - most of whom were Asian and many Korean - has long been a point of contention between Tokyo and Seoul.

Japan says the matter of compensation for the women was settled under a 1965 treaty establishing diplomatic ties with South Korea.

In 1995 Japan set up at fund to make payments to the women from private donations, but Seoul says that was unofficial and therefore insufficient.

Hashimoto said that given the dispute over compensation, Seoul should take the issue to the International Court of Justice, a suggestion which brought a sharp rebuke from South Korea.

"I think Japan's recent . remarks are throwing cold water onto our government's will to strengthen friendship between Korea and Japan more than ever," Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told reporters.

"If such circumstances do not improve, not only summit-level but other high-ranking exchanges won't be that easy," Yun added.

Japanese Prime Minister Abe caused controversy during his first term in 2006-2007 by saying there was no proof that Japan's military had kidnapped women to work in the brothels.

He has, however, sought to distance himself from Hashimoto's remarks and his government has drawn back from early signals that it might revise a landmark 1993 statement by then Chief Cabinet Minister Yohei Kono that acknowledged military involvement in coercing the women, and apologized to them.

Hashimoto said there was no doubt that women had been coerced into working in the brothels, and that Japan's military supervised the facilities and in some cases provided military vehicles and ships to transport the women.

But he said the Kono Statement was ambiguous on whether Japan "as a state" had been involved in human trafficking, and called for joint research by Japanese and South Korean scholars into that point.

Hashimoto also apologized for and retracted his remark that U.S. soldiers currently stationed on Japan's Okinawa island should use the local sex industry more to "control their sexual energies".

Okinawa is host to the bulk of U.S. forces in Japan, and many residents object to their presence, which they associate with sexual and other crimes as well as pollution and accidents.

A Pentagon spokesman told the Asahi newspaper that Hashimoto's original remarks went against the policies and values of the U.S. forces.

Hashimoto said his comment reflected his wish that the United States take needed measures to alleviate the suffering caused in Okinawa by crimes committed by the U.S. military. (Reuters) (GNN)

Hollywood veteran Bruce Dern wins Cannes best actor

CANNES: One of the stars of Hollywood's 1970s golden age, Bruce Dern, won the best actor prize Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance in Alexander Payne's "Nebraska". In the recession-era road movie, the 76-year-old Dern plays an alcoholic father who believes he has won a million dollar sweepstake.

Dern has enjoyed a long career playing villains and psychos which earned him honours early on, although he struggled to escape being typecast.

The 76 year old, father of Laura Dern, began acting in the 1960s, appeared in the 1974 version of "The Great Gatsby" with Robert Redford, and played a baddie in last year's Quentin Tarantino bloodfest "Django Unchained."

Payne's black and white movie set in a crisis-ravaged American Mid-West, sees Dern's character, Korean veteran Woody, take a road trip with his long suffering son David from their home in Montana to his father's Native Nebraska to claim his purported million-dollar winnings.

The film was one of several screened this year featuring performances by stars from Hollywood's 1970s golden age including Michael Douglas and Robert Redford.

Born in Chicago in 1936, Dern started out on television before breaking onto the big screen in roles including westerns with John Wayne, whom he shot dead in 1972's "The Cowboys," the only actor to kill the Duke onscreen.

He was nominated for a Golden Globe in "The Great Gatsby," and an Oscar and a Golden Globe for 1978's "Coming Home," and won a Silver Bear in Berlin for "The Championship Season," but rarely took home the top prizes.

Critics say Dern, a close friend of Jack Nicholson, struggled to escape casting directors' assumptions of what he could play.

"I've played more psychotics and freaks and dopers than anyone," he once said. "Because I'm the only actor who ever killed John Wayne in a picture, producers have pegged me for a villain."

The actor, who was not at the ceremony on the French Riviera to accept his award, has been married three times, including to actress Diane Ladd with whom he had two children.

The first daughter died at 18 months. Laura Dern, born in 1967, went on to star in "Wild at Heart" in 1990 and "Jurassic Park" in 1993. (AFP) (GNN)

SocGen's Russian unit fires CEO Golubkov

French bank Societe Generale's SOCG.PA Russian unit Rosbank has dismissed Chief Executive Vladimir Golubkov following his prosecution for bribery and will launch a search for a successor, it said on Monday. France's second-biggest bank is seeking to reassure markets that it can overcome the latest blow to its underperforming Russian subsidiary after a years-long turnaround campaign that has cost billions.
Rosbank said its board had fired Golubkov with immediate effect. His first deputy, Igor Antonov, will continue as acting chief executive until a replacement can be found.

Golubkov was arrested this month after being filmed by investigators with piles of cash on his office desk. He pleaded innocent to bribery charges that, if he is convicted, could put him behind bars for seven years.

The bribery case has raised questions about strategy at SocGen, which paid an estimated 4 billion euros ($5.2 billion) to acquire 82 percent of Rosbank. The business has failed to generate meaningful profits in Russia.

SocGen's Didier Hauguel, who oversees the French bank's activities in Russia as well as its insurance and specialised financial services operations, told newspaper Le Figaro on Monday that morale at Rosbank was "intact".

"(Replacing Golubkov) was an emergency measure but Antonov is chief executive in his own right," Hauguel told the daily. "I do not want to be making decisions at each turn of events."

While analysts and bankers have criticised SocGen for failing to establish stronger management control over Rosbank, Hauguel defended his role, saying in the interview that a lot of executives had been replaced over the past year.

"I don't feel that I behaved as if it were a walk in the park," he said.

The appointment of a new chief executive would require the blessing of Russia's central bank.

($1=0.7734 euros) (Reuters) (GNN)

Saudi death toll from new virus reaches 18

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry says a woman has died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 18. Saudi Arabia remains the center for the virus as investigators from the World Health Organization seek more clues about its origins and how it is spread.

Last week, WHO officials said at least 22 people have died from the virus worldwide out of 44 cases.

The Saudi Health Ministry announced the virus' latest victim in a statement Sunday.

The ministry says a foreigner also died of the virus in Saudi Arabia last Tuesday after having pneumonia like symptoms. No other details were released.

The virus has been compared to SARS, a respiratory infection that surfaced in China in late 2002. (AFP) (GNN)

Mystery of why we itch revealed by scientists

Scientists had an itch they just needed to scratch: solving the ages-old mystery as to why, exactly, we scratch ourselves. The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research says the answer is a mixture of commonly held beliefs along with some interesting new research.
While it's true that irritants on the skin, such as a rash or a insect landing on us, can trigger an itch through nerve cells, the process of how we are made aware of the sensation, clinically known as "pruritus," takes part in different parts of the body.

Testing on mice, the scientists found that a molecule released in the dorsal horn of the spine begins the biological process.

The molecule, neuropeptide natriuretic polypeptide b (Nppb), then travels to the brain, creating the feeling of the itch.

In their study, the scientists were able to isolate mice without Nppb. "When we exposed the Nppb-deficient mice to several itch-inducing substances, it was amazing to watch," said Santosh Mishra, lead author on the study. "Nothing happened. The mice wouldn't scratch."

"The receptors were exactly in the right place in the dorsal horn," added study co-author Mark Hoon. "We went further and removed the Npra neurons from the spinal cord.

We wanted to see if their removal would short-circuit the itch, and it did."

Through their research, the scientists learned some other fascinating facts about Nppb as well.

"It's released by the heart," Hoon told Time, "to control blood sodium and blood pressure. It's a cornerstone of biology that a lot of these neurotransmitters are used in different parts of the body for different purposes."

So, does that mean it's time to take a celebratory dive into poison ivy? Do humans no longer have to worry about annoying itches?

Not exactly. Hoon says doctors would currently be faced with two undesirable options: Affecting blood pressure control or injecting Nppb directly into the spinal cord, which, he dryly notes, "is not a trivial thing to do."

In the meantime, the study's authors are hoping to solve the other end of the equation, finding out why itching stops.

"Now the challenge is to find similar biocircuitry in people, evaluate what's there, and identify unique molecules that can be targeted to turn off chronic itch without causing unwanted side effects," Hoon said in a release accompanying the study. "So, this is a start, not a finish." (GNN)

22 Hezbollah fighters killed in Syria's Qusayr

BAALBEK: Twenty-two Hezbollah members were killed in fighting alongside Syrian government forces against rebels for control of the town of Qusayr, a source close to Lebanon's movement said on Sunday. "There were 22 killed on Saturday. Nine bodies were repatriated the same day and the rest on Sunday," the source said, declining to be named.
The Syrian army announced that on Saturday its forces had infiltrated Dabaa military airport, a rebel post north of Qusayr, a week into a Hezbollah-backed offensive to recapture the strategic central town near the Lebanese border.

"Fighting is taking place inside the airport after they broke the rebel defence lines," an army source said.

The source close to Hezbollah said the militant group has now lost a total of almost 110 fighters since it joined the battle in Syria several months ago, with most of the deaths in and around Qusayr.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Hezbollah lost 10 fighters in Qusayr on Saturday, out of a total of 147 people killed in violence across Syria, including 79 rebels, 32 soldiers and 26 civilians. (GNN)

Investigators looking at height clearance in bridge collapse

OLYMPIA: The oversize load on a semi-trailer truck that struck a Washington state bridge was likely too tall for the lowest point of clearance on the structure, part of which collapsed after the collision, a federal safety official said on Saturday. Two vehicles behind the truck plunged into the frigid waters of the Skagit River following the collapse of the span of Interstate 5 on Thursday evening between the towns of Mount Vernon and Burlington, about 55 miles north of Seattle.

The three occupants of the vehicles were rescued from the river, but activists and federal lawmakers seized on the partial collapse of the steel truss bridge, which was built in 1955, to call for greater investment in the nation's aging infrastructure.

But Washington state officials have said preliminary indications were that the bridge, which was inspected twice last year, was not structurally deficient and the section fell because of the impact from the truck.

The truck was carrying on its flat bed a large steel, box-like structure built to house drilling equipment, a spokesman for the Washington State Patrol said on Friday.

The truck was permitted by the state to carry a load at a height of 15 feet and 9 inches, but the lowest point of clearance on the bridge was 14 feet and 6 inches, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman told a news conference on Saturday.

The truck driver has told investigators he repeatedly measured the height of his load at 15 feet, 9 inches, Hersman said. She said the bridge was elliptical in shape, shorter on the sides than in the middle, where the clearance was higher.

Hersman said NTSB investigators planned to measure the load on a flat surface to confirm its height.

PERMIT RULES

While the Washington state Department of Transportation gave Alberta, Canada-based Mullen Trucking, the company that employs the trucker, a permit to carry an oversize load at a height of 15 feet, 9 inches, the state does not provide operators with the vertical limit of each bridge along a route, Hersman said.

The permit, a copy of which the state Department of Transportation posted on its website, says the proposed route for an oversize load "does not guarantee height clearances."

A state regulation also posted on the website makes clear the operator is responsible for ensuring the route "is free of overhead obstructions."

As part of that obligation, the company must send a pilot car through to check clearances along the route, Hersman said.

The driver of a pilot car with a pole measuring at least the height of the oversize load did not radio the trucker to warn about the span, Hersman said.

The truck driver has told investigators that his vehicle and the pilot car were both traveling in the right lane, closer to the shorter side of the bridge, as they crossed the span, she said.

At the same time, another commercial vehicle was traveling in the left lane, where the clearance is higher, she said.

The steel structure the truck was carrying was damaged on the top corner nearest the shortest clearance of the bridge, Hersman said.

David Postman, spokesman for Washington state Governor Jay Inslee, said that with the incident still under investigation, it was too soon to assess blame. "The governor has not pointed the finger," Postman said.

Officials with Mullen Trucking could not be reached by phone on Saturday. (Reuters) (GNN)